If you mean my post, I censored myself. I substituted the * for s in my typing. 🙂 On the grounds that some people probably read this at work, etc – a habit of mine (when I remember). I know the words, and I figure everybody else here probably does too, but I can try to be polite!

Actually, I was mocking someone else who has had a very unreasonable habit of late: ridiculously overreacting every time Dave has included the innocent “censoring rebus” gag in his own comic as if Dave was somehow violating his own right to free speech. Go back and check the comments on the last few strips that include this gag to see who I mean. The guy hasn’t shown up this time, so maybe he read my comment and got the point or is sulking or has decided to move on. Or maybe he’s just a troll who finally had his fill of attention from here and is seeking attention elsewhere.

I don’t actually care, because I made my point. I just wanted to ninja him once, and I have. Done.

Actually for me (who isn’t a native speaker of English), Dave’s censoring “gag” made Rachels word play illegible to me. (I tried substituting the noun instead of the adjective, which made Rachels phrase rather insulting even though still not making a lot of sense.)

What I’m noticing is that our little mer-girl, who has a talent for getting into trouble, is now wandering around the school building, after hours, and unsupervised. Add in her missing hairpin sending out an Amber Alert to whomever, that kid playing with her bag, and the PTA meeting going on a few doors away and it’s a sure thing Dave is planning some big drama.

XD If I’m understanding the images in place of words, that was pretty clever. I sure know I had a good chuckle fit when I figured it out.

I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure, since Selkie asked if she could go to the bathroom, that Rachel said be ‘pissed’ here, or be ‘pissed’ there, I don’t care. In which case, that would have been a clever double reference (Selkie being angry+what bathrooms are used for)

Let’s see. The last time Selkie withdrew from the room to tend to personal matters alone in the washroom the end result included a child suffering from believing her parents were going to throw her out, a man getting fired, a girl getting wrongly accused, and Todd getting summoned from work for a personal family emergency…
I’m pretty sure this scene was not written solely so that Dave could make a witticism in rebus form.

Censoring via illustration actually defeats the purpose of censorship. As Louis C.K. says, if you allude to a word, you’ve already made me THINK it, regardless of whether you actually said it. Plus, pictures are more vivid than words. “Pissy” is a gross word, but not nearly as gross as a drawing of a puddle of urine. When I look at that picture, I can’t help imagining where it came from and how it smells. Similarly, if you write “F***” I think, “oh, a curse word.” But if you draw two interlocking symbols (which were never intended to represent body parts – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_symbol), then I’m more likely to picture two specific people doing the specific act. Is that what you want?

What you’re saying is true, but it also assumes the reader knows the original word being referenced. The comic’s main character is an eight year old, and I know from people telling me so that their are similarly-aged readers in the audience. If they don’t already know the word being referenced, such illustrations are more of an abstract “naughty word”. In other words, it’s not intended to hide the nature of the specific word being used; it’s purpose is to utilize the specific swear word in a way that’s encoded so those who want to let their younglings read Selkie, but don’t want them learning naughty speech, can do so.

Besides that, I simply find this method of swear-word obfuscation more fun to work with than the traditional @#$% or P***.